Memo scandal witness refuses to travel to Pakistan

The chief witness in a secret memo scandal that threatens to bring down the Pakistani president will not travel to the country to testify, claiming the government has set a trap to prevent him from leaving, his lawyer said on Monday.

Mansoor IjazPhoto: www.unitednews.com

12:16PM GMT 23 Jan 2012

Mansoor Ijaz offered to record his testimony and submit it to a Supreme Court commission investigating the scandal, said lawyer Akram Sheikh. Ijaz, a US businessman of Pakistani origin, was scheduled to travel to Pakistan to appear before the commission on Tuesday but has bickered with the government over who will guarantee his safety.

Ijaz has accused the Pakistani government of orchestrating a memo, which he delivered to the US last year, asking Washington to help stop a supposed military coup following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Pakistani government has denied any involvement.

The scandal has rattled the civilian leadership at a time when it is beset by an array of crises, including a struggling economy, a violent Taliban insurgency and a separate tussle with the Supreme Court over old corruption charges against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The army was outraged by the memo and denied it ever intended to carry out a coup. It successfully pushed the Supreme Court to investigate against the wishes of the government, which said the matter was already being probed by the parliament.

Ijaz has claimed the Supreme Court commission ordered the military to guarantee his security while in Pakistan, but the government has said the Interior Ministry was responsible. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned Ijaz could be prevented from leaving the country.

"It seems like a well-orchestrated trap to hold Mansoor Ijaz indefinitely in Pakistan," said Sheikh, his lawyer.

The army assigned one officer to Ijaz's security detail at the request of the government, Attorney General Anwarul Haq said later on Monday.

But this was clearly not enough to assuage the witness' concerns.

Ijaz has accused the former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, of crafting the memo with the support of Zardari. Haqqani resigned in the wake of the scandal, but both he and the president have denied any connection to the letter. The Supreme Court has prevented the former envoy from leaving the country while it is investigating the scandal.

Haqqani's lawyer, Zahid Bokhari, filed a petition with the Supreme Court commission asking it to turn down Ijaz's request to record his statement.

"If he does not come to Pakistan, he has something to hide, instead of something to reveal," said Bokhari.

Government supporters have accused Ijaz of acting at the behest of the country's powerful army, something both have denied. They have also questioned Ijaz's credibility.

Those questions intensified last week after a music video surfaced in which Ijaz acted as a commentator for a female wrestling match in which both women eventually ripped off their bikinis – a shocking image in conservative Pakistan. Ijaz claimed he didn't know there would be nudity in the video.

One of the reasons the memo scandal has generated so much controversy is rampant anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. The letter offered to replace Pakistan's national security leadership with people favourable to the US in return for help from Washington in stopping the supposed coup.

The US has provided Pakistan with billions of dollars in military and economic aid in return for support in fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but relations have always been defined by a lack of trust.